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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/topwright on 2023-07-18 03:00:29.

For as long as I can remember, I've always had a best friend named "Sidney." She always went to the same school as me and she seemed to always be in the same class. Sidney was a great friend to me. Most of the time. I was a very weird child in middle school. I was that "cat girl" you would see running on all fours through the halls and try to avoid at every cost. No wonder I got bullied as badly as I did. Sidney was always there with me when I got picked on. She never said anything... intervened or stood up for me. I didn't expect her to.

Sidney was a very soft spoken girl. She didn't ever speak unless I spoke to her. She never answered questions in class, never spoke to other kids, and I don't think I've ever seen her speak directly to a teacher. She was kind of just... there. Even in kindergarten, she always made sure to talk through me. I assumed it was just because she was shy. But honestly, asking her questions and talking for her was getting annoying. Sidney wasn't anything special, but she had been there with me for years now. She was a good friend. A solid friend. A real person I could talk to since my other peers thought I was too weird for social interaction.

I remember one day, close to the end of 8th grade, the bullying I had been going through was worse than it had ever been before. One of the girls, Stephanie, seemed to have gotten more ruthless overnight. Stephanie never liked me. No matter how many times our moms tried to set play dates up for us. I remember telling Sidney about this. Complaining about the treatment. I finally accused her of never caring enough about me to stand up for me when I was being bullied. I could see her expression change. It went from that neutral, blank stare to something I could only describe as... inhuman. She got up from the lunch table and left. She didn't tell me where she went. She would usually text me if she decided to ditch and tell me where she was going...

I didn't see Sidney for a week after and counting.

I kept texting her and begging her to come back to school. I was telling her how sorry I was that I said that about her and how I missed her. I got no responses.

I was so wrapped up in getting Sidney to come back that I didn't notice the bullying had stopped. Or... lessened dramatically. Stephanie was gone. And that was abnormal. She was always on the 100% attendance lists- it was weird for her not to be here. But, I just assumed- like any other kid- she got sick.

Until I was watching the news with my mother that night after school. And they declared Stephanie Miller a missing persons... missing since the beginning of the week. My stomach turned coldly as my mother expressed her condolences aloud, talking about how Stephanie was an angel. How her parents must already be grieving. How she hoped they would find her alive.

I slipped away while she was on the phone with Stephanie's father to lock myself in the room. My chest felt heavy. Like I knew something was wrong but I didn't want to accept it. Sidney had always been quiet, yeah. But she would never hurt someone. Stephanie going missing after Sidney left school that Friday was just a coincidence, right?

I tried to text her.

But when I opened our messages... I caught a glimpse of the phone number at the top. It was... strangely familiar. It was mine. My number was listed under what used to be Sidney's contact. Sidney Marsh. That was her name. Sidney Chloe Marsh. She told me this a million times. She always signed her name SCM. But why was my name here? Why was my number here? Why were there open ended questions? The only answers ghost texts of the messages I had already sent

Sidney where are you?

Sidney where are you?

Are you coming back to school?

Are you coming back to school?

It was endless. The echoed messages that sent horrible chills down my spine, a horrible cold emptiness blooming through my chest. It dated all the way back to when I had gotten my first phone. Set up my phone number. Sidney had given me hers. I had put it into my phone. I remember it like it was yesterday. So why was there no proof of this?

In my frenzy, the buzz of my phone scared me into nearly dropping it onto the ground. At the bottom of the messages, there was a little tab that read: one new message. Amongst the hundreds of repeated messages, running by me in a blur as I clicked the notification, there was a new unique message:

Do you believe that i care about you now?

There was no explaining the terror I'd felt in my body, watching this phantom message appear on my phone. I debated telling my mother, but just as the thought appeared in my head, I glanced back down at the screen. The new message was gone. Like it faded away into nothingness. My hands were ice cold and trembling as I watched the three ... that indicated someone was typing pop up above my keyboard.

Sidney did you kill Stephanie?

Although I hadn't touched the keys, the message was sent from my side. I watched in horror as the message duplicated itself as all the others had.

Sidney did you kill Stephanie?

They never did find Stephanie. Not from what I can remember... I remember leaving for college and seeing her parents packing things into a moving van. It seemed like they'd finally given up the hope that their little girl would just wander back home. But I don't think she did.

And I never did see Sidney again.